GREEN BAY, Wis., Feb. 16 -- Reggie White, the NFL career sack leader and a future Hall of Famer, has officially retired after 14 years of professional football. After saying the 1998-99 season would be his last, White, 37, turned in his retirement letter on Monday to Green Bay Packers Executive Vice President and General Manager Ron Wolf. The letter ended speculation that new Packers head coach Ray Rhodes might be able to persuade White to return to Green Bay for another season. 'It was very amicable,' Wolf told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. 'He's a special player and he was a special part of our success and the successful history of the Green Bay Packers.' There was a time of reconsideration. White gave some thought to playing another year after the Packers hired Ray Rhodes as head coach when Mike Holmgren left for Seattle. 'He had his mind made up that he was going to retire then Ray got the job,' said White's agent, Jimmy Sexton. 'Ray came to him and asked him to play. He went away and thought about it (but) what made this interesting is that they never gave us the impression they needed salary cap room. We always thought they wanted us to wait until June until they called and said they wanted to know now. He's fine with it.' Had White decided to play the '99 season, his salary would have put the Packers $3.4 million over the cap, money they needed to sign two much-needed defensive free agents -- tackle Santana Dotson and linebacker George Koonce.
White led the NFC with 16 quarterback sacks in 1998 and was voted Defensive Player of the Year. He was selected to the Pro Bowl in Honolulu for the 13th consecutive year -- the sixth time as a member of the Packers. He retires as all-time NFL sack leader with 191.5 and as Packers' career sack leader with 68.5. White was a defensive lineman with the Philadelphia Eagles for eight years before joining the Packers on April 8, 1993, and helped Green Bay win Super Bowl XXXI over the New England Patriots in Jan. 1997.
